No New Trial Where Conflicted Counsel Replaced Well Before Trial

The Iowa Supreme Court has vacated a Court of Appeals new trial order and reinstated an arson conviction.

In this case, we are asked to determine whether a new trial is required when the district court replaces a conflicted defense attorney with a conflict-free attorney more than three months before trial, and there is no showing that the previous conflict had ongoing adverse effects on the representation. We conclude a new trial is not required in these circumstances. For this reason, we affirm the district court’s judgment of conviction and sentence. We also vacate the decision of the court of appeals ordering a new trial.

The conflict involved the defendant’s first counsel’s representation of a witness against him.

Vaughan…alleges his pretrial counsel, Henson, labored under an impermissible conflict of interest that requires us to grant a new trial. As we have noted above, [witness] Cline told [attorney] Henson on May 31, 2012, that he wanted to talk to the prosecutor about Vaughan. Henson passed along the message but continued working on Vaughan’s case until Cline was listed as a prosecution witness. At that point, Henson moved to withdraw and was replaced by conflict-free counsel (Liles) on August 22. Vaughan’s trial did not begin until December 17.

The court here reviewed Supreme Court case law on the right to conflict-free counsel and concluded

It is undisputed that Vaughan received conflict-free counsel well before trial. Thus, even assuming his prior counsel labored under an actual conflict, Vaughan must show that this arrangement was somehow insufficient to cure the prior conflict. He has not done that. As the dissenter on the court of appeals pointed out, the relief Vaughan seeks on appeal is essentially the relief he received from the district court—namely, a trial with conflict-free counsel. So how have his constitutional rights to counsel been violated?

Justice Appel specially concurred and makes a pertinent point

I concur with the result and most of the court’s opinion; however, I think the court’s opinion misses an important aspect of this case.

To me, it is astonishing that a lawyer representing an accused in a criminal matter would facilitate the discovery of evidence by the prosecution adverse to his or her client. Yet, this is precisely what occurred here. When Vaughan’s attorney learned from Cline that Cline wanted to speak to the prosecutor about Vaughan, it was obvious Cline did not intend to assist in Vaughan’s defense. At that point, Vaughan’s attorney should have refused to contact the prosecutor on behalf of Cline. Instead, he facilitated the prosecution’s receipt of evidence adverse to his client. When he did so, he was not acting zealously on behalf of Vaughan. It was a disloyal act…

In my view, the record thus presents a possible ineffective-assistance claim. Vaughan’s new counsel could have sought to exclude the testimony of Cline on the ground that the evidence was discovered through an improper communication between his previous attorney and the prosecutor. He did not do so. Whether the failure to object to the admission of the evidence amounted to ineffective assistance of counsel is not presently before the court.

Justice Hecht joined the special concurrence. (Mike Frisch)